Game review: Empire of the Ants (Xbox Series X)

In most video games, you are controlling a human being, whether they are fighting a battle or competing in a sport. There's nothing wrong with human beings, but it can be boring playing as homo sapiens all of the time.

Well, someone must have listened to me because there's a new video game out this year where you can play as an ant! It's not a humanoid ant like Flik from 'A Bug's Life' either. Empire of the Ants lets you play as a realistic ant that might be in your garden!

I had a lot of fun playing the 'A Bug's Life' video game back in the day because the environments and levels were very creative. This is because ants are small, so everyday objects like blades of grass and other insects look huge when you are a tiny ant!

Empire of the Ants is similar in a way because blades of grass are tall, food like pears are huge and small puddles of rain look like flooded riverbeds to small ants. You will also encounter other insects in the game, and they look freaky up close.

Not to mention Empire of the Ants may have one of the most realistic-looking graphics I have ever seen in 2024. When I first booted the game on my Xbox Series X, it looked as if I was watching a nature documentary on TV. I'm not kidding when I say this game has one of the best graphics for an Xbox game this year!

What's even more surprising about Empire of the Ants is how varied and interesting the overall gameplay is. The game features multiple different missions that stop the game from being too repetitive. Sometimes, you might be controlling only the main character, while in other missions, you could be in charge of an army.

When controlling the main ant, the controls are quite simplistic and easy to learn, mainly because you are just an ordinary, everyday insect. The main thing you will do as a single ant is jump, and ants can jump way higher than humans can in this game.

By holding down the Y button (triangle on PlayStation), you can charge up a jump. The longer you hold the button, the higher the ant can jump. The jump button is really important because the ant will have to avoid obstacles like water because the ant cannot swim. You also don't have to worry about any fall damage either because ants can survive huge jumps no matter how high they are. 

In solo ant missions, you may need to find lost ants in a huge environment. There is one mission where you need to find seven ants before the water rises and drowns them all. To make the mission a bit more bearable, you can press the left trigger to smell the other ants' pheromones. Once you lock on to an ant, the UI will show you how far they are from your location.

In another solo ant mission, you'll need to capture three firefly bugs. I thought this mission was going to be easy, but jumping on top of the bugs to capture them is harder than it looks! This is because the ant cannot fly, so the fireflies would always buzz away if the ant got too close to them.

Aside from solo and missions, a variety of quests will require you to be in charge of a small army. You start off operations in an ant nest, and you have to tell other ants to gather food and wood. The more food and wood that is collected, the more armies that you can create.

You need to create a strong army of bigger ants because they can kill enemy insects such as bugs and termites. You also have to guide the army to conquer and steal other nests so that you can grow your empire of ants. The more nests you collect, the easier it is to kill off all of the opposing enemies.

The combat plays much like an RTS game where you have to point and click where you want your army to go. You can point them to collect more food, or you can tell them to attack enemies that might be a threat to your nest. Some enemies want to destroy your nest(s), so it's best to create defences to ward them off.

The game's single-player campaign is quite lengthy, as it should take most gamers around 20 to 25 hours to finish everything. Once you finish the story missions, you can dive into the game's multiplayer mode to face off against players online in RTS-style action. There's no shortage of things to do in this game. 

While this game is fun, there are some things I didn't like about it. The main thing I don't like about combat is the fact that the ant you are controlling cannot fight back on its own.

When you are in the middle of an opposing army, you can't do anything other than run away like a chicken. The only thing you can do is tell your own army to attack for you, which is kind of boring.

Another thing that annoyed me while playing Empire of the Ants is that there are several time limit missions too. I remember I had to collect lots of food and wood in under 20 minutes, and this is easier said than done because collecting resources in this game is a slow process.

Aside from a few annoying flaws, Empire of the Ants is a big surprise because it features innovative gameplay and amazing graphics. If you want to try something different, this game is perfect for gamers who want to diversify their game library.

Verdict: 8.5/10